Oxford,
16
May
2018
|
09:00
Europe/London

Chanice gets royal wedding invite from ‘big sister’

The excitement is about to bubble over for one little girl who is on the guest list for a rather special wedding this Saturday.

Ten-year-old Chanice has been counting the hours since ‘big sister’ Sara Fernandez invited her as her ‘plus one’ at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s eagerly awaited nuptials.

Sara, 30, has been “hanging out” with Chanice at the weekends and during the school holidays since 2013, when she became her mentor as part of a volunteering scheme to help young people achieve their potential.

The Oxford resident was included on the Lord Lieutenant’s invite list in recognition of her charity and voluntary work – including co-founding the Big Brothers, Big Sisters mentoring scheme, which is supported by the county council. She knew immediately who to invite along when the envelope arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best day out

Sara said: “Chanice thinks it’s amazing. She has told all her friends and we keep talking about how we have been invited and Donald Trump and Theresa May haven’t. We do so many different things together when she visits, and we both love trying new things, so I think this is going to be one of our best ever days out. Chanice has such a hunger for life – when you do anything with her it is always double the fun.”

Chanice said: “I was completely amazed when Sara told me. I didn’t think it was possible, really, because it’s royalty and not like any other normal wedding.

“I remember reading about Meghan Markle when I heard they were getting married, and thinking how incredible it would be to go to the wedding.”

She added: “Sara is really entertaining. We always do fun stuff together like ice-skating or swimming, or sometimes we just make scrapbooks together.”

Hoping for good weather

Although not a seasoned Royal-watcher, Sara, who grew up in Madrid and now lives in Oxford, was overwhelmed to receive the invite and can’t wait to make the trip down to Windsor.

“I just hope it’s sunny. It will be good to just see all the guests and spend some time in Windsor Garden”, she said.

“Because I’m not from Oxford originally, I can do lots of things here for the first time with Chanice. I don’t have a lot of extended family here so it was nice to be a ‘big sister’ for someone who was a bit closer by so we could hang out together.”

It certainly looks set to be a grand day out.

To find out more about Big Brothers, Big Sisters, visit: http://bbbsuk.org/